With DVD kiosks for rental and sale of DVDs becoming more and more prevalent, customers may be exposed to kiosks from multiple manufacturers operated by different operators on a daily or near daily basis. If the units employ different size and shape cases, a DVD in a case from one machine, such as a Redbox™ machine, returned to another machine, such as an NCR Blockbuster™ machine, may cause a jam as a result of being returned to the wrong machine. A service call to clear a jam may be expensive, and a jam taking a unit out of service will also typically result in a loss of business for the operator.
As such kiosks further multiply, a number of other issues may be anticipated or may possibly occur even if unanticipated. If a number of manufacturers settle on a common size case or container, consumers using multiple different machines may mistakenly return the wrong DVD to the wrong machine. Similarly, a consumer may put a DVD that he or she owns in a return container rather than the rental DVD that needs to be returned. Alternatively, a consumer might mistakenly return a DVD owned by the consumer in its own rental case or in a rental case for a particular machine, such as an NCR rental case, rather than the rental DVD in the rental case. A customer may even mistakenly try to return a DVD from one NCR Blockbuster™ machine operated by one operator to another such machine operated by a different operator. The above list is meant to be illustrative of the problem and not exhaustive of the possibilities.